


Selection Tactics

by Forget_About_Me



Series: Omovember 2019 [12]
Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Alien Biology, Awesome Martha Jones, BAMF Martha Jones, Desperation, Doctor/Patient, Embarrassment, F/M, Hurt/Comfort, Illnesses, Martha Jones Is a Star, Omorashi, Omovember, Omovember Day 12, Poison, Xenophobia, diuretics
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-23
Updated: 2020-03-23
Packaged: 2021-02-28 18:02:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,890
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23271409
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Forget_About_Me/pseuds/Forget_About_Me
Summary: The Doctor takes Martha to a fancy party among futuristic humans, while at the party they realise that aliens are not welcome on the planet. Can they keep the fact that he is an alien a secret?
Relationships: Tenth Doctor/Martha Jones
Series: Omovember 2019 [12]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1533461
Comments: 13
Kudos: 20





	Selection Tactics

**Author's Note:**

> Aight, I'm finally here with day 12 of Omovember, aka the last day that I needed to fill. This is going to have multiple chapters, more on that at the end of the first chapter.  
> This doesn't quite fit the prompt, but I hope I will be forgiven.
> 
> Aight so, we keep having small discussions in the comments and it's just obvious they are not designed for this. So I decided to make a discord and I think I'm just going to take it for a spin, to see if people are interested and if it will help. Which means from now on, I'm available through discord. It is possible to send in prompts through discord, although I won't promise to fulfil all of them.  
> You don't necessarily need an account to use discord. You can use a guest account, kinda like how you can leave a comment on fics without an account  
>   
> You can find the discord [here](https://bit.ly/WPDiscord5)  
> 
> 
> Prompt: Experiencing unexpected diuretic effects
> 
> **Make sure you have read and understood the tags before continuing**  
>  **Don't like, don't read**

The Doctor looked up as he heard Martha entered the room and couldn’t quite help but stare at his companion who was wearing a beautiful red dress.

“You look...” He paused for a few seconds in order to collect his thoughts. “great.” He finished lamely.

She smiled slightly at him. “You don’t look half bad yourself.” eyeing him in his Tux.

He looked down at himself. "You've seen me in this before, right?"

She smiled at him. "Doesn't change the fact that you look good in it."

They were about to leave for a party at the mansion they were going to join about 3 miles from the TARDIS. They had been invited to it earlier that day when they were in the village close by.

“Right, yeah. Thanks.” He tugged awkwardly at his ear in response to Martha's comment.” You ready to go?”

“Yeah, shall we?” She said as she walked up to him.

He smiled at her before offering an arm.

* * *

“It’s a beautiful hall,” Martha commented, looking around in awe.

They were standing slightly off the side of the ballroom, choosing to watch the dancing for now. 

She didn't think the Doctor would want to dance at all, he generally preferred chatting up some royalty or someone else important to enjoying himself on the dance floor. Not that she minded, there were enough blokes on the dance floor who might be interested, instead.

The Doctor nodded in agreement at her statement, taking a sip of the drink he had been given. All guests were given a drink upon entering. It was a tradition at these kinds of parties to get a drink as a welcome present.

“Right, so. In a couple of minutes the hostess, who is in the yellow dress.” He started.

“How do you know she’s the hostess?”

“She’s wearing a yellow dress.” He stated as if it was obvious.

She rose an eyebrow at him.

“It’s customary here for the host to wear yellow.” He answered after a short exasperated sigh. “Anyway, she’s going to give a toast in a couple of minutes. Just a generic hello, often coupled with some announcements.” He explained. “At the end, she will introduce the guest of honour, who will be wearing purple. After this, the party officially starts. And it ends again when the guest of honour leaves.” He took another sip of his drink. “Culture states that no one leaves until the guest of honour does, it’s a high offence, punishable by death.”

Martha pulled a face at that. “Nice to know.”

“Yeah, it shouldn’t be a problem. They generally leave around 2 to 3 hours after the official kick-off.” He mentioned offhandedly.

Before Martha could say anything against that, they got interrupted by the sound of tapping on glass. 

The welcome toast was about to start.

‘Hello everyone. First of all, I want to thank you all for coming to the celebration of the return of Cashir from his journey through the Casterdo Galaxy.”

Everyone clapped as the son bowed, who was wearing a purple suit, making him the guest of honour.

“As always the normal rules are in places. Additionally, everyone can have as many glasses as they desired. However, remember that we use Foreiter for outsider detection. Furthermore, there are...” Martha felt her alien friend tensing up after the mention of Foreiter. She glanced at him, noticing the well-hidden panic in his expression. 

Everyone else there wouldn’t notice anything wrong with him. He was surprisingly good at hiding his emotions and potential discomfort. While most of the times it was an annoying habit of his, in a situation like this it came in handy. 

It helped that in the time she had been with him she had slowly learned to see the subtle differences in his moods, so she noticed how unsettled he was right now, while everyone else was clueless. 

And she was fairly certain that they wanted to keep it that way.

She suspected that it had something to do with that outsider detection method the hostess had mentioned, it could probably discover him and she did not doubt that that would be bad for them. 

She would have to ask the Time Lord to be sure.

Martha noticed him staring at his glass, which was about half empty now. He was probably reacting to that Foreiter the hostess mentioned, she hoped it wasn't poisonous for him.

She moved to stand next to him, subtly grabbing his free hand squeezing it in an effort to calm him down. He smiled gratefully at her, obviously appreciating the offered comfort.

But he didn’t fully relax, not that she had expected that.

After the speech had ended she moved closer to the Time Lord, slightly in his personal space but that didn’t matter right now.

Besides, he often invaded her personal space without reason, he had no right to complain.

“What is Foreiter?” She whispered, looking subtly around to see whether people were looking in their direction. She couldn’t see anyone that worried her but decided to still be careful about her questions.

He stared at her for a few seconds, which slightly worried her, before answering.

“It’s a drug, it doesn’t affect humans in any way. But pretty much all other species are affected by it. On some planets, it’s used by humans to find unwanted aliens.” He shifted a bit awkwardly but subtle not to get any attention on himself. “It’s difficult to hide that you have been affected by it for a long time. So it is pretty effective.”

“What does it do?” Martha wondered.

“It’s a diuretic.” He informed her.

She nodded, she didn’t have to ask the obvious question of whether he would be affected. The answer was obvious from his body language.

How long did he say until they could leave? He had said after the guest of honour left, but she couldn’t quite remember if he had given a time indication for that.

She didn’t dare re-ask him in case someone overheard and might become suspicious. In the same way, she didn’t dare to ask him more about how the diuretic was used to find aliens.

Although she thought she saw some guards at where she had suspected the toilets were, she wondered if that had anything to do with it.

She vowed to ask him later when it was safe.

Right now, the issue of him being affected by the diuretic was more important. There wasn’t much that she could do for him right now, except offer him comfort through a hand to hold.

 _Al tough._ An idea popped into her head.

Martha glanced at his still half-filled glass, the lower the dose he would get the better his chances were.

At least that was what she suspected.

She subtly but quickly drank her own glass empty, ignoring the questioning look of The Time Lord, he would understand in a minute.

After she had finished her glass, she carefully looked around them, checking whether anyone was noticing them.

When she thought the coast clear she quickly grabbed his glass with her empty hand, before replacing it with her empty glass.

This way he at least would get a smaller dose of the drug.

She had no idea how much that would help, she didn't know enough of how the diuretic worked. It might She guessed that he would have to hold his bladder until the end of the party at the very least, potentially until they were back at the TARDIS.

The medical student couldn’t ask The Doctor whether that assumption was true, or give her any indication that he could hold it that long or if her switcheroo had helped.

Because if anyone overheard they’d be in trouble and while she wanted to know the answers she didn’t need any of them in order to help him.

At least he looked grateful at her after she had switched the glasses.

* * *

The Doctor subtly shifted his weight, it had been about an hour since the party had started and they had learned about the Foreiter.

He was starting to feel his bladder. 

When the hostess had mentioned the Foreiter his blood had run cold, he immediately had run some internal diagnostics and had found that there were indeed some small traces Foreiter in his system. At the time only part of the Foreiter he had ingested had been absorbed. 

He had absolutely panicked as he realised the situation he was in.

Only when Martha had started to ask him questions had he even attempted to shake himself out of his panicked haze. Only partly succeeding at it.

Foreiter was an infamous drug no one wanted to be exposed to. Well, if it would affect your species that is.

Martha was great about it though, he was so lucky to have her. She seemed to have guessed the issue almost instantly, without him having to say anything, not that he could any wrong move and they would be marched to their execution.

She had thought along with him on the issue. Okay, if he was honest he hadn't been thinking much beyond some colourful curses. Switching his half-filled glass for her empty glass had been a brilliant idea. He didn't think it would help him with holding on until the end of the party, Foreiter was pretty slowly absorbed by the body, a higher dose didn't necessarily mean that the concentration in his body would increase faster. A higher dose would just result in a higher and later peak. 

If he managed to go through this party without getting arrested, he would probably be in slightly less trouble with his body because of his companion's quick thinking. 

Honestly, he had no idea if he could hold his pee until they were back to the TARDIS.

There was no research on how long a Time Lord could go without the loo after getting a full dose of the drug. 

_Or any dose for that matter._

No one took Foreiter out of their free will and it was too complicated to guess.

Foreiter was not used for anything medical, it absolutely nuked the ability of kidneys to filter water back into the bloodstream after it had been absorbed into the kidneys in the first place.

 _In other words, there was no stronger diuretic available._

He looked at his companion, she had stayed close to him holding his hand, offering comfort. Something he was grateful for.

He leaned closer to her.

“Do you think we could dance?” He asked, slightly nervous. He generally didn’t dance during these kinds of parties, but he needed a distraction.

She glanced at him, slightly surprised. “Sure.”

Considering the situation, she would give him anything he asked for if she could. Even if she didn't understand why

He pulled her onto the dance floor, to enjoy the slightly upbeat song that was playing.

* * *

About half an hour and eight songs later, the two time travellers were slowly swaying in time with the music.

The Doctor had become really fidgety, even while dancing though he masked it well. It was becoming obvious that he was feeling the effects of the diuretic.

She felt sorry for him, it was cruel to have your bladder used against you in such a way. She wanted to ask him how he was doing, but that was risky in case someone was listening along. Which could have severe consequences.

“What’s your favourite number?” She decided to ask instead, hoping that he would realise that she was, in fact, asking him where he was on the scale. She couldn’t outright ask him about the scale as that would potentially raise suspicion. 

_She had to be careful_

He frowned for a second, caught off guard by her out of context question, before realising what she was asking.

“I like seven. Seven is a good number.” He told her more cheerful than he felt, staring at her hoping to somehow make it clear that he understood her question.

She nodded. “I personally like fifteen better.”

“That, Martha Jones, is also a very beautiful number.”

* * *

Fifteen minutes later and the Time Lord felt as if his bladder was about to explode. He didn’t think his bladder had ever filled this quickly, at the rate this was going he doubted he would make it back to the TARDIS, even if they left right that moment. Of course, the question of whether he could hold it until the end of the party was more important. 

He didn't know the answer to that either.

He hoped the guest of honour was going to leave soon, he wasn’t sure how much longer he could act like he wasn’t dying for a piss.

_Not very long, that was certain._

As if the universe had been listening to his prayers; less than a minute after he thought that the sound of trumpets indicating the departure of the guest of honour.

 _Finally._ He thought in relief, careful not to relax his muscles too much.

“What’s that?” Martha asked him.

“The signal that this party has ended.” He answered as the hall started to empty. “Let’s go?” He suggested hopefully.

“Yeah, let’s go home, I’m tired.” She lied once again for appearance sake, grabbing his hand.

* * *

All the guests went back in the direction of the town, while they went in the other directions so about five minutes later they were walking in the forest alone. Something the Doctor was grateful for.

“How are you holding up?” Martha asked the Time Lord.

“Not very well. I’m bursting for the loo, got a headache, am thirsty and dehydration is going to be a real problem soon.” He informed her tersely.

Martha nodded, not surprised.

“Where are you on the scale?”

“Eight.” He informed her, grabbing himself to help him hold it. “Rassilon, I need to go.”

“How long has it been since you last went?”

“I went earlier while I was waiting for you to get ready, so it has been about four hours.” He groaned.

“Only four hours? That has to be a record for you.” She commented.

“Probably is, yeah.” He gasped and stopped in his tracks as he felt his bladder spasm, he crossed his legs while clenching his muscles in attempted to fight his eager bladder. “That’s not exactly a good thing.” He whimpered. “I don’t think I can wait until we’re back.” He admitted, slightly out of breath.

She nodded, not surprised by this admission, looking around them confirming that they were alone. “It’s probably safe for you to just go here, no one to check whether you’re human. I’ll walk ahead a bit, give you some privacy.” She offered.

He nodded at her. “Thanks.”

Almost as soon as she turned around he started fumbling with the fastenings of his trousers quickly moving over to the side, groaning as he couldn’t get his button undone. 

“Oh come on.” He whimpered as he tried to get leverage, but that was difficult when you just couldn't stand still.

He finally managed to pull himself out of his pants, which took longer than he’d like to admit, he aimed at the bushes in front of him and let himself relax.

He didn’t quite manage to keep quiet at the relief that coursed through him as the urine gushed out of him. He wasn't sure if Martha could hear that, he was a bit too distracted to care, though.

After he was done he zipped his trousers back up and started walking to catch up with his companion while starting on a bottle of water he still had in the jacket of his Tux.

“Feeling better?” She wondered as they continued walking together.

“Marginally, I’m still in trouble, though.” He answered honestly.

“How long does the diuretic work?”

“I don't know, there is no real guideline.” He ran his hand through his hair in frustration, before taking a sip of his water bottle. “Long though. The way it works it doesn’t leave the body very quickly, most of it keeps lingering in the kidneys for a very long time.”

“Just how worried do we have to be about dehydration?” She looked at him concerned.

“Very.” As he took another sip of this water “Foreiter is such a strong diuretic that you could almost argue that it is a poison.”

She nodded. “Alright, so we’re going to put you on an IV once we’re back in the meantime you should keep drinking.“

He held up the bottle “I’m on it. Got a second one, as well. I brought two, one for both of us. I hope you don’t mind if I claim yours as well.”

“Of course I don’t mind. I didn’t even know you brought them.” She grabbed his free hand. “Hey, you’ll be okay, I’ll look after you and you will be better in no time, alright? We’ve dealt with worse.” She reassured him, after realising he was still slightly panicking about the situation, albeit only internally. 

He worked surprisingly well when he was panicking. She did admire that of him, but sometimes it was hard to realise that he needed comfort.

He nodded silently but wasn’t so sure about it. But the fact that his companion trusted in it made him feel a bit lighter. 

_Foreiter really was a dangerous drug._

**Author's Note:**

> Poor Doctor.  
> Technically I can call this fic finished and just leave it at that, but who doesn't want to see him working through the effects of the diuretic? I'm sure it is entertaining.  
> Well, to us at least. I doubt our favourite Time Lord and Medical Student are going to be having a great time...  
> Meh, they'll live.  
> I hope...


End file.
